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We wanted to do something a little different here for this article. We want you to interact and vote to see who the #1 Greatest MLB Pitcher of All Time really is. We are going to give our ranking from 10 to 1 but we want you to vote as readers and let us know what you think!

What we are going to do is rank them, giving their career stats/highlights and our case for them and we would like you to comment below and vote in the poll over at fantasysportsadvice.sportsblog.com with your own list!

We wanted to do something a little different here for this article. We want you to interact and vote to see who the #1 Greatest MLB Pitcher of All Time really is. We are going to give our ranking from 10 to 1 but we want you to vote as readers and let us know what you think!

What we are going to do is rank them, giving their career stats/highlights and our case for them and we would like you to comment below and vote in the poll over at fantasysportsadvice.sportsblog.com with your own list!

10. Tom Seaver (1967-1986)

George Thomas “Tom” Seaver was nicknamed “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise.” He pitched from 1967-1986 for 4 total teams in his career.

MLB Stats:

311 Wins

3,640 strikeouts

61 shut outs

2.86 Career ERA.

Teams:

New York Mets (1967-1977)

Cincinnati Reds (1977-1982)

New York Mets (1983)

Chicago White Sox (1984-1986)

Boston Red Sox (1986)

These numbers are amazing and in 1992 Hall of Fame voters thought so as well. Seaver was inducted by the second highest percentage ever at 98.84% of the vote. Seaver and Mike Piazza are the only 2 Mets in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown so far and Seaver and Gil Hodges are the only 2 Mets players who have had their numbers retired.

Career highlights and awards:

12x All-Star (1967-1973, 1975-1978, 1981)

1969 World Series Champion

3x NL Cy Young Award (1969, 1973, 1975)

NL Rookie of the Year (1967)

3x NL Wins Leader (1969, 1975, 1981)

3x NL ERA Leader (1970, 1971, 1973)

5x NL strikeout leader (1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976)

No-Hitter (06/16/1978)

New York Mets Hall Of Fame

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame

As you can see, Seaver had an established career and this is why he has made our list at Number 10.

Paul Francis Sullivan (please call him Sully) does a podcast 365 days a year – unless it is a leap year – then he will do another 1. He has done a show everyday since Oct.24/2012. This to date represents a streak of 1232 days consecutively!

Past the CLICK TO READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY are episodes 374 – 403 of the Sully Baseball Daily Podcast.

We will also archive all of his podcasts to date (in coming weeks) so they are easily accessible for all his fans. Check out all his Archived info here.

This week’s list is all about WAR or Wins Above Replacement. This is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic.

There are a bunch of baseball fans who hate sabermetrics, but I really dig WAR and it lends itself to great conversations.

The Miracle Mets of 69, the World Series team of 1986, the 2000 Mets and the 2015 club that lost World Series, who on this list makes that?

For a franchise that has been around for 53 years going 54, they have placed just 2 members into the Baseball Hall Of Fame withGary Carter being inducted as an Expos player – only Tom Seaverand nowMike Piazza have been enshrined in Cooperstown.

With Ken Griffey Jr. collecting 437 of 440 votes last night and now holding the highest record for % of votes (99.3%), it stirred up a conversation on Facebook about others either snuck in or ranked much higher than expected.

Let’s start with facts…

Before Griffey Jr., Tom Seaver had held the top spot for % of votes received at 98.8%

Homer Bailey took a long time to fulfill expectations in the Reds Starting Pitching Rotation. At age 27, he has now thrown 2 No hitters in under a calendar year. Bailey has a Career Record of 43 – 40, with a 4.38, but has hovered around a 3.70 ERA over the last 2 years. In a team filled with a deep no – hitter history – including the only man ever to throw back to back no hitters (Johnny Vander Meer) – he has put his name up on that mantle.

The No-Hitter is a very special moment for any pitcher, any fanbase, and of course any franchise in baseball. It’s a rare feat; only 280 of them have been pitched since 1875, with 23 of them being Perfect Games.

Nolan Ryan’s 7 career No-Hitters is the Major League record, and he is one of 31 players in Major League history to throw more than one.

In 1991, the No-Hitter was officially defined by MLB’s Committee For Statistical Accuracy as follows: “An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings.”

This definition took off the books many previously recognized No-Hitters that failed to meet the definition.

New York, New York big city of dreams where not everything is as it seems, so we had Mike Silva of WGBB1240 AM and James Acevedo of the Bench Warmers and 2 and a Hook podcasts come on and break down the Mets and Yankees.Mt Rushmore, BetHubb.com best bets and Blue Jays talk too. Another Home Run show! Read the rest of this entry →

Today’s episode of The Sully Baseball Daily Podcast is a celebration of June 22nds of the past!

The legacies of Tom Seaver, Grover Cleveland Alexander and Bobby Cox and the existence of the Minnesota Twins all had significant mile stones on this date over the years.Paul Goldschmidt, Shane Victorino, and Stephen Strasburg all owned baseball on June 19, 2013.
To see the up to date tally of “Who Owns Baseball?,” click HERE.

‘2 And A Hook’ is an expression from Baseball: ‘Throw the guy 2 Fast balls and then a Hook’ (AKA Curve Ball, Wiggly one, Chair etc..)

On today’s show, brought to you by MLB Reports (www.mlbreports.com) & yours truly The Bench Warmers, I talked with MLB Reports Braves correspondent Bob McVinua (www.braveschoptalk.wordpress.com) about the Atlanta Braves season so far, what’s to come for them the rest of the season plus other things…

Then I talked to MLB Reports Dodgers correspondent Enrique Rivera about their phenom Yasiel Puig, if the Dodgers somehow can get back in the playoff race amongst other issues…

Also I interviewed MLB Reports White Sox correspondent Brian Madsen about the White Sox offensive struggles, is their farm system producing any future ball players & other stuff…also I do my Stats & Facts segment as usual so check out this baseball podcast that talks baseball like it outta be!!! SPREAD THE WORD!! Thank you all for your support!!!

The Giants have gutted out a 12 – 7 record despite Matt Cain being 0 – 2 with a 7.15 ERA, and Ryan Vogelsong featuring an early season ERA of 5.89. Buster Posey is also off to a slow start. This team has so much depth and talent, I see nothing that will stop this club from taking their 3rd NL West Division crown now that the LAD have had severe injury problems to their Starting Rotation. The Giants take their rightful spot as #1 in the MLB Reports Weekly Rankings thids week.

The Major League Baseball Season is roughly 10% over and we are seeing some trends and patterns. The next time you wonder why games are so long in the game right now, look no further than there are about 150 hitters that are currently on pace to Strikeout 100 plus times this season.

Other Notes:

The Cincinnati Reds won every game this past 7 days, after losing every day the week prior. This is simply why they shot up the rankings. I think the NL Central is the weakest Division this year. It was my prediction that the oldest professional baseball club would run away with this Division by at least 10 games.

Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Votto are on the Basepaths at all times – carrying an OBP of over .500 plus each. Votto is starting to drive the ball with authority too. Brandon Phillips, Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart are driving in Runs at an incredible rate.

Kid Nichols was 361 – 208 (.634) for his Career -with a 2.96 Lifetime ERA. From 1896 – 1898 he led the NL in wins each year – amassing an incredible 92 – 37 (.713) Record in that time frame with the Boston Beaneaters. He is one of 13th players to throw in over 5000+ IP (5067.IP and good for 11th ALL – Time. Incredibly he spent time growing up playing baseball in Surrey, B.C. Canada, which is where our Website Owner Chuck Booth played.

MLB Reports: We are pleased to present you with Baseball Author Lee Edelstein as the newest writer with us at the Reports. Lee will be providing us with great stories about baseball memorabilia on a regular basis.

MLB Reports

An American Hobby

Blog 7

Kid Nichols

Charles Augustus “Kid” Nichols was born four years after the end of the Civil War. He would live long enough to see himself inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949.

His journey to Cooperstown began in 1890 when he debuted for the Boston Beaneaters. He had quite a rookie season, winning 27 games, putting up an ERA of 2.23, and leading his league with 7 shutouts. But Kid Nichols was just warming up.

In 1891 he won 30 games, the first of seven seasons when he would reach the 30-win plateau. In 1892, Nichols won 35 regular season games plus two more in the Championship Series where they vanquished the Cleveland Spiders and their top pitcher, a guy named Cy Young.

The baseball memorabilia industry may be slowing down from recent generations of over production – but that does not mean that the hobby is dying. There are Millions of valuable collectibles out there like this painting of Ted Williams and The Babe.

MLB Reports: We are pleased to present you with Baseball Author Lee Edelstein as the newest writer with us at the Reports. Lee will be providing us with great stories about baseball memorabilia on a regular basis.

MLB Reports

An American Hobby

Blog 1

Collecting baseball cards is a uniquely American hobby. As a kid growing up in the 1950’s I had shoeboxes full of them. All of my friends did, too. We had so many cards that, when we got older and our interests shifted to teenage pursuits, our moms decided to clean house. Literally. Out went the cards which they considered to be nothing more than junk. Today, we wax nostalgic over those cardboard canvasses of our heroes that we treated so casually. That’s also why, in good condition, they are worth small fortunes.

I renewed my interest in card collecting a few years ago when I decided to build a collection of the elites of the game – the ballplayers who are members of three very exclusive clubs: 300 Wins, 3,000 Hits, and 500 Home Runs. It’s an exclusive membership that includes players from before the turn of the twentieth century (Kid Nichols and Pud Galvin are tied for #7 with 361 wins) through players who are active today (Derek Jeter is currently #11 on the ALL-Time Hit list with 3,304. He is only 11 hits behind Eddie Collins (10th) and 15 behind Paul Molitor (9th):

300 Wins – 24 players

3,000 Hits – 28 players

500 Home Runs – 25 players

Each week, I’ll feature a baseball card of one of these all-time greats. Along the way, we’ll talk about other aspects of America’s Hobby, why it continues to grow in popularity, and answer any questions you may have.

I took the photo in Cooperstown, after driving from Boston to baseball’s Mayberry with three buddies for my first look at the game’s red-bricked shrine. When we entered the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery, just off the museum’s lobby, I instinctively knew which of the immortals I wanted to visit first. Walking through the years to the 1966 induction class, I found him on the wall right alongside Casey Stengel:

The picture stands today as the symbol of an era — and innocence — lost. In it, Roger Clemens and Ted Williams share confident, youthful smiles. Williams is, quite literally, a bronzed God, staring out at the photographer in his tanned, All-American glory. Clemens, wearing a fresh, clean Red Sox uniform, also has the look of a man who knows exactly what he wants out of life.

Williams yearned to be the world’s greatest hitter; Clemens the top pitcher. At the time of the picture, in 1988, both had reached their goal.

Since the list of Hall of Fame nominees was announced in the last month, I’ve been pondering whether first-time candidate Roger Clemens would be earn my vote if I had one to give.

The Rocket has undeniable Cooperstown credentials, topped by a record seven Cy Young Awards, the 1986 AL MVP, and 354 victories. He struck out 4,672 batters during his long career, a total topped only by Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson, and twice had 20-K games in which he didn’t walk a single batter. That combination of power and control also helped Roger Clemens lead his league in ERA seven times.

In my memory bank of Red Sox pitchers, which dates to the mid-’70s, only Pedro Martinez resonates as more dominant over a sustained period of time. But while Pedro was a delicate thoroughbred rarely allowed to reach past the seventh inning, Clemens was a good-old-fashioned workhorse who regularly finished what he started.Read the rest of this entry →

Note from Alex Mednick: I am going to be putting together a small project that accumulates all the best players of all time, and puts them together on teams according to their birthplace. For example, in this first edition I will be breaking down players from the United States of America into teams from the 1) Northeast, 2) Southeast, 3) Midwest, and 4) Southwest…(sorry, there really is not enough quality coming out of the northwest to compete with these teams…maybe I will put a Northwestern United States team in a later edition with less competitive teams). Later on I will bring you teams assembled from the all-time greats out Central and South American (Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Panama Canal Zone, etc.) and the All-Caribbean Team (Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Curacao, etc). Also look forward to teams from Japan, Canada and the EU. Should be fun to sort of assemble an “Olympics” of Baseball. I love watching the World Baseball Classic and seeing players fight for their nations pride…but by grouping the teams by region, it might make the teams more competitive. Of course, this is all for the sake of speculation; Babe Ruth was a great player, but I don’t think he will be taking any at-bat’s soon. (Also, please note that I do not lend consideration to relief pitchers in this analysis). Read the rest of this entry →

Jonathan Hacohen: Posted every Weekend: Your top baseball questions from the past week are answered. E-mail all questions to mlbreports@me.com, message us on Twitter, post on our Facebook Wall and leave comments on our website! There are many ways to reach us and we will get to your questions from all social media outlets!

Let’s get to your top questions of the week:

JH: Before we get to your questions, we have to send a big shout out to the one and only, Johan Santana. We have enjoyed countless e-mails, tweets and comments on the Mets this year. The Mets faithful have been loud and supportive this year and represent the largest fan base we hear from every week. So this little note is for you.

The incredible Santana, in his first year back from major surgery that threatened to de-rail his career, threw a no-hitter. Not just any no-hitter. But the first no-hitter in New York Mets history. Think about that one. It will boggle your mind. The amount of quality pitchers that have pitched for the Mets over the years is astronomical. Nolan Ryan. Tom Seaver. David Cone. Dwight Gooden. Frank Viola. How is it possible that this team had never spun a no-hitter before? Fate and luck are the biggest reasons. It is not that easy to get a no-hitter. Many things have to go right for a no-no to occur. So finally, in the whole history of this franchise, the Mets have a no-hitter of their own. Plus, it came from not just any pitcher, but one of the best pitchers of our generation. Johan Santana. I can’t say enough good things about the man. He has been as solid as they come over his career. From a Twins ace for all those years, Santana came to the Mets to take them to the promised land. But critical shoulder surgery, combined with the team’s other injuries and off-field issues put a damper on the entire teams and its players. The 29-23 Mets have been amazing this year though. With only David Wright as their leading hitter, this team has been incredible. R.A. Dickey. Frank Francisco. Jon Rauch. Bobby Parnell. Daniel Murphy. The Mets just don’t give up. Now with the no-hitter in the books, this season has turned magical for the Mets and its fans. Santana was on fire tonight. Despite giving up 5 walks, he struck out 8 over a complete 9 innings. He needed 134 pitches to complete the no-no. In front of only 27,069 Mets fans, Santana pitched the game of his life on home turf. Lucas Duda with the home run and 4 RBIs. Daniel Murphy with 2 hits and 3 RBIs. The Mets won this one as a team and the city of New York gets to celebrate the reincarnation of the Miracle Mets. At least for 1/3 of a season to start. Well done Johan Santana, we’re proud of you! Read the rest of this entry →

Chuck Booth’s 30 MLB Parks Trip World Record Page

In 2012, Chuck Booth attended a complete game in all 30 MLB Parks in just 23 calendar days, click the image of he and Larry Lucchino to read all about it.

The MLB BallPark Pass-Port Is A Must Purchase For Those Planning To See All 30

The Ballpark Passport is quickly becoming the favorite item among Ballpark Chasers, to chronicle their life goal to see all 30 Major League Parks. You are able to receive the stamps kit for a small additional price. At around $75 all combined, it will contain one of the biggest memento's ever for a Ballpark Chaser's best bucket list wish ever#Greatgiftidea

March 21: Bregman will be paid $11MM annually from 2020-22 before earning $28.5MM in both 2023 and 2024, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). He also has a 10-team no-trade clause for the 2023-24 seasons. March 20: The deal includes a $10MM signing bonus, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). That’s unusual for a…

March 21: Trout will make $36MM in 2019 and 2020 before earning $35.45MM annually over the remainder of the contract, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times reports (via Twitter). March 20: The Angels have formally announced Trout’s extension. The contract was announced as a 12-year deal, though that term also includes the two years for…

The Marlins announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson while optioning fellow outfielder Austin Dean to Triple-A New Orleans. Three non-roster players — lefty Mike Kickham, righty Hector Noesi and catcher Rodrigo Vigil — were all reassigned to minor league camp, too. Miami now has a full 40-man roster. Grand […]

The Phillies announced Thursday that they’ve released four non-roster invitees to Spring Training: infielders Trevor Plouffe and Gregorio Petit as well as left-handers Edward Paredes and Jeremy Bleich. The Phils also optioned lefty James Pazos and right-hander Drew Anderson to Triple-A. Plouffe, 32, was the Twins’ primary third baseman from 2013-16 and provi […]

7:25am: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that Tomlin will start Saturday’s Grapefruit League game for the Braves and could potentially break camp with the club as a long reliever. If not, it appears he’ll head to Triple-A Gwinnett. 7:04am: The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Josh Tomlin to a minor league contract. He’ll be…